{"id":2497,"date":"2012-10-30T20:36:11","date_gmt":"2012-10-30T18:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spasspasov.com\/?p=2497"},"modified":"2017-05-21T20:38:03","modified_gmt":"2017-05-21T17:38:03","slug":"german-ambassador-protests-against-interview-cuts-in-bulgarian-newspaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spasspasov.com\/?p=2497","title":{"rendered":"German Ambassador Protests against Interview Cuts in Bulgarian Newspaper"},"content":{"rendered":"

October 30 2012 (BTA<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

In a letter to the managing editors of the ‘Monitor’ daily, Petya Baharova and Todor Varchev, published on
\nthe embassy website, the German Ambassador in Sofia, Matthias
\nHoepfner, expressed surprise and concern because of the cuts
\nmade in an interview of his published in the newpaper on October
\n23.
\nAccording to the Ambassador, what was cut out was his
\n‘unequivocal criticism of the problematic structures in the
\nBulgarian media landscape.’<\/p>\n

Hoepfner says he was left with the impression that some of the
\nthoughts he had shared were puposefully removed to avoid a
\ncritical clash with the subject of media freedom in Bulgaria.
\nAccording to him, the interview gives readers a warped idea of
\nhis actual opinion of the political situation in the country.<\/p>\n

The parts which were removed include one in which he says that
\nthe concentration of ownership of media companies into the hands
\nof several persons only is very problematic. He also expressed
\nconcern about the transparency of media ownership,
\nautocensorship of journalists, covert advertisement and paid
\narticles.<\/p>\n

Showing understanding that some of the questions and answers in
\nthe interview had to be removed due to limited space. Hoepfner
\nunderscores that it was not published in the form agreed and its
\nmeaning is distorted.<\/p>\n

‘As a citizen of the European Union and thereby a member of a
\ncommunity of values which adamantly supports the freedom of
\nmedia, I cannot tolerate attempts to suppress criticism,’
\nHopefner writes. He also quoted George Orwell: ‘Freedom is the
\nright to tell people what they do not want to hear.’<\/p>\n

‘Monitor’ is part of New Bulgarian Media Group owned by Irena
\nKrusteva, BTA recalls. She and her son, Delyan Peevski, VEO of
\nthe group, are frequently accused of monopolising the media
\nmarket and far from transparent financing.\/PK\/BR<\/p>\n

The same text in Bulgarian\/\u0421\u044a\u0449\u0438\u044f\u0442 \u0442\u0435\u043a\u0441\u0442 \u043d\u0430 \u0431\u044a\u043b\u0433\u0430\u0440\u0441\u043a\u0438.<\/a><\/p>\n

––––––––––––<\/p>\n

SEEMO calls on Bulgarian police to investigate threatening messages targeting journalist<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), calls on the Bulgarian authorities to investigate\u00a0 threatening messages received by Spas Spasov, a Varna-based correspondent of the national Bulgarian dailies Capital and Dnevnik.<\/p>\n

On 31 July, 2012, Spas Spasov received a parcel by post containing a dedicated copy of an ancient Chinese book, The Art of War. The signed dedication read: \u201cIf you cannot make friends or win them, it is better to leave them alone\u201d. In post scriptum, the note added: \u201cThe world is small and it cannot be governed from Singapore.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first part of the dedication referred, according to Spasov, to his investigation related to a construction project,\u00a0while the second related to the newspapers\u2019 publishers. The implication, he believes, is clear: Stop investigating.<\/p>\n

Spasov told SEEMO that one day before the book arrived by post, his wife received a visitor:\u00a0 a representative from a local company connected to the construction projects investigated by Spasov came to her office and requested her home address. Indirectly and directly, the owners of several companies involved in the\u00a0construction project threatened both Spasov and his family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI call on the Bulgarian authorities to take these threats seriously and investigate their origin. Journalists have to be protected and work in a secure environment,\u201d SEEMO Secretary General Oliver Vujovic said. \u201cIn a democracy, critical writing has to be accepted and journalists and their families cannot be threatened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Link to SEEMO\u2019s website.<\/a><\/p>\n

–––––––––––––<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

October 30 2012 (BTA) In a letter to the managing editors of the ‘Monitor’ daily, Petya Baharova and Todor Varchev, published on the embassy website, the German Ambassador in Sofia,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2498,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[409],"tags":[388,20,386,35,387],"class_list":["post-2497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english-2","tag-388","tag-20","tag-386","tag-35","tag-387"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spasspasov.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spasspasov.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spasspasov.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spasspasov.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spasspasov.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2497"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/spasspasov.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2500,"href":"https:\/\/spasspasov.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2497\/revisions\/2500"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spasspasov.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spasspasov.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spasspasov.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spasspasov.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}